Chiara Luce Badano

Luce Badano“I offer everything, my failures, my pains and joys to Him, starting again every time the Cross makes me feel all its weight. The important thing is to do God’s will. I might have had plans about myself but God came up with this. The sickness came to me at the right time… [and] now I feel like I am wrapped into a wonderful design that is slowly unfolding itself to me.”

A member of the Focolare ecclesial movement, she wrote to Chiara Lubich, the founder of the movement: “I’ve rediscovered the Gospel in a new light. Now I want this book to be the sole purpose of my life!”

(Blessed Chiara Badano, who died on October 7, 1990 at the age of 18 after a painful struggle with osteosarcoma. She was beatified in 2010; her feast day is today.)

Jesus heals the blind man

william blake Christ giving sight BartimaeusToday’s gospel is pointing the way as we move to the end of the civil year and the end of the liturgical year: Jesus cures the blind man Bartimaeus. With the gradual loss of light we are keen to see, and spiritually speaking, to see in a new way. The blind beggar gives us the direction.

The only other man singled out (named in this way) for such a healing is Lazarus. We know from our study of and prayer with sacred Scripture will help is to recognize that a significant portion of Jesus’ mission was healing and making whole of humanity. This beggar Bartimaeus, a blind man from birth, knows he can find healing only from Jesus alone. The gift of sight given to Bartimaeus is not only physical, but also spiritual. He recognizes the Lord. And the consequence of sight is the act of following. And in this healing and following Bartimaeus becomes a disciple. This is our goal too: follow Christ closely.

Saint Clement of Alexandria speak of the grace of uncreated light: “The commandment of the Lord shines clearly, enlightening the eyes. Receive Christ, receive power to see, receive your light, that you may plainly recognize both God and man. More delightful than gold and precious stones, more desirable than honey and the honeycomb is the Word that has enlightened us…Despite the other stars, without the sun the whole world would be plunged in darkness. So likewise we ourselves, had we not known the Word and been enlightened by him, should have been no better off than plump poultry fattened in the dark, simply reared for death. Let us open ourselves to the light, then, and so to God.”

The grace we ask for today is the grace to recognize the person of Jesus, the Son of David, Son of God, as the One who can give life, peace, and healing. As Clement indicates, from the Lord we are enlightened…the gift of openness to the Light of Faith.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux gives us a hint of how to approach this enlightenment: “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, thereby a kindly word; always doing the smallest good thing and doing it all for love.”

Saint John Paul II

JPIIBlessed  Feast of Pope Saint John Paul II!

Saint John Paul II: “In its present form, inspired above all by Saint Benedict, Western monasticism is the heir of the great number of men and women who, leaving behind life in the world, sought God and dedicated themselves to him, “preferring nothing to the love of Christ”.The monks of today likewise strive to create a harmonious balance between the interior life and work in the evangelical commitment to conversion of life, obedience and stability, and in persevering dedication to meditation on God’s word (lectio divina), the celebration of the Liturgy and prayer.”
–Vita Consecrata, 6

Jesus, we desire nothing more

detail of Christ iconWherever we turn in the Church of God, there is Jesus. He is the beginning, middle, and end of everything to us… There is nothing good, nothing holy, nothing beautiful, nothing joyous, which He is not to His servants. No one need be poor, because if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. No one need be downcast, for Jesus is the joy of heave, and it is His joy to enter into sorrowful hearts. We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus, or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet should never come to an end of the sweet things that might be said of Him. Eternity will not be long enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done –but then, that matters not; for we shall be aways with Him, and we desire nothing more.

Frederick W. Faber (1814-63)
All for Jesus
London: Richardson & Son, 1854, pp. 1-2

North American Martyrs

AuriesvilleToday is the feast day of The North American Martyrs, the French Jesuit priests who died at the hands of the Huron and Iroquois Indians in the 17th century. There is a Shrine of the North American Martyrs, in Auriesville, New York. Sadly, the Jesuits have given up the administration of the Shrine.

These martyrs are: Saints Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, René Goupil, Jean de la Lande, Antoine Daniel, Noël Chabanel, Charles Garnier and Gabriel Lalemant.

Following the heart and mind of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the mission of the Society of Jesus to be missionaries, Isaac and his companions left everything they had known to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to a people whom they had never met. The Holy Priests suffered extreme physical hardships, and ultimately offered their lives, for a people for whom they had the deepest love.

They were canonized June 29, 1930 by Pope Pius XI. Their liturgical memorial in the USA is October 19, and September 26 in Canada.

We pray with the Church: O God, who chose to manifest the blessed hope of your eternal Kingdom by the toil of Saints John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and their companies and by the shedding of their blood,graciously grant that through their intercession the faith of Christians may be strengthened day by day.

St. Isaac Jogues and Companions, pray for us!

Saint Luke

Luke painting the BVMToday the church remembers Saint Luke, the apostle and evangelist, “Scriba Mansuetudinis Christi” [writers of Christ’s gentleness] (Dante).

Known as the physician and evangelist of mercy.

History tells us that Saint Luke was a native of Syrian Antioch, and that he was a companion of the Apostle Paul (Phil.1:24, 2 Tim. 4:10-11). The Church historian and Father Eusebius (AD 260-340), described Luke in this manner: “Luke, who was by race an Antiochian and a physician by profession, was long a companion of Paul, and had careful conversation with the other Apostles, and in two books left us examples of the medicine for the souls which he had gained from them” (Eccl. Hist. 3.4.6; LCL 1:197)

One of the many key elements of Saint Luke’s Gospel and his Acts, is the reality of sacrifice that we all are forced to confront in our lives. No life has meaning without sacrifice. Hence, Saint Luke is also pictured with the symbol of the ox, a symbol of sacrifice connecting with the sacrifice of Jesus. Some scholars say the earliest date of Luke’s death is AD 84.

Louis and Zélie Martin, saints

Saints MartinsSaints Louis and Zélie Martin are models of holiness for us today, especially for families. The Martins were married in Alencon, France, in 1858 and gave to history nine children. Zélie Martin died of cancer in 1877, at the age of 45 and Louis died when in 1894, at 70 years.

Pope Francis canonized Louis and Zélie today and beatified in 2008.

Saints Louis and Zélie are the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and another daughter and candidate for sainthood, Léonie  Martin, who became Sister Françoise-Thérèse of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen.

Angelo Cardinal Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, described Louis and Zélie Martin as “an extraordinary witness of conjugal and family spirituality.”

At the wish of Pope Francis the faithful were invited to pray before the mortal remains of the new saints at the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

Saints Louis and Zélie model for us the vocation of Catholic parents. Despite many difficulties and sufferings they persevered and kept strong faith. In an age when so many families suffer, let us pray for the strengthening of families.

Saint Callistus and Ember Days

Happy feast day of Pope Saint Callistus. The Church liturgically remembers this early pope because of his leadership and spiritual care in the face of trial and heresy. Slave, failed banker, convict and pope. He’s a late second century personage. Studied theology, ordained a deacon and a great counselor. Killed in 222 a riot against Christians. He’s the patron saint of cemetery workers. The pope’s biography is incomplete and often untrustworthy due to the lack of good records from this time. This Pontiff shows how to face our trials (and death): with Christ alone. Don’t give into the temptation of nihilism. Seek what God has shown us: Himself.

The liturgical scholars tell us that Callistus gave us the Ember Days. Before the revision of the Liturgy, the Church observed days of prayer and fasting (outside Fridays, Advent and Lent, and certain other days) with Ember days. There exists for sets of Ember days corresponding more-or-less with the change of seasons. So, Ember Days were known by the faithful from about AD 220 to 1969. Callistus links our Christian life with a good dose of Old Testament theology and typology.

As typical, when you touch something ancient it has the possibility of disintegrating, which is what happened to the Embers. The 1969 revision of the Church calendar reads:

“In order to adapt the rogation and ember days to various regions and the different needs of the people, the conferences of bishops should arrange the time and plan of their celebration. Consequently, the competent authority should lay down norms, in view of local conditions, on extending such celebrations over one or several days and on repeating them during the year. On each day of these celebrations the Mass should be one of the votive Masses for various needs and occasions that is best suited to the intentions of the petitioners.”

The Holy Martin Family

Martin FamilyOn Sunday, October 18th, the Holy Father will canonize the parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (the Little Flower on Sunday. Louis Zélia Martin, whose children entered religious life. One of the girls is our beloved Little Flower was a Carmelite (like three of her sisters) and another, Léonie, became a member of the Visitation Order. Léonie’s cause for sainthood was introduced recently.

Saints beget saints.

The Martin family is a good group to go to for intercession.